Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (2024)

Table of Contents
Biden condemns Trump as Washington splits over legacy of Jan. 6 attack. Biden: ‘I’ll Allow No One to Place a Dagger at the Throat of Democracy’ 4 takeaways from the anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Biden Calls Out Trump for Inciting Jan. 6 Capitol Attack Biden takes a new, confrontational approach to Trump. Biden rejects working with Republicans who support ‘the rule of a single man.’ Trump — and Trumpism — is not going away. Republicans mostly tried to stay out of the spotlight. A year later, the Jan. 6 attack has become just another wedge dividing the nation. Republicans and Democrats come together in Atlanta to remember Senator Isakson on Jan. 6. Elevating conspiracy theories, Greene and Gaetz led the only Republican event commemorating Jan. 6. Right-wing media criticized Biden’s speech and played down the Jan. 6 anniversary. The lawyer who helped Pence stand up to Trump is still concerned for democracy. Violent online threats rose in the lead-up to the Jan. 6 anniversary, officials say. The fight over American democracy and the fragility of good faith: A discussion with Times reporters. Carl Hulse Nick Corasaniti Reid Epstein Lisa Lerer Nick Corasaniti Carl Hulse Lisa Lerer Lisa Lerer Nick Corasaniti Astead W. Herndon Lisa Lerer Astead W. Herndon Nick Corasaniti Astead W. Herndon Lisa Lerer Nick Corasaniti Carl Hulse Lisa Lerer Carl Hulse Astead W. Herndon Nick Corasaniti Reid Epstein Astead W. Herndon Charles Homans Lisa Lerer Reid Epstein Carl Hulse The Cheneys, once despised by the left, are welcomed warmly by Democrats at a Jan. 6 observance. ‘We’re going to count those votes.’ Schumer recounts a harrowing evacuation and a resolute return. Schumer Recounts Harrowing Escape From Capitol Rioters FAQs

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Peter Baker

Biden condemns Trump as Washington splits over legacy of Jan. 6 attack.

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WASHINGTON — President Biden denounced former President Donald J. Trump and his allies on Thursday for holding “a dagger at the throat of America” by promoting lies and violence as the nation’s capital fractured into sparring camps a year after the Jan. 6 mob assault on Congress.

In his most sustained and scathing repudiation of his predecessor since taking office, Mr. Biden used the anniversary of the Capitol siege to condemn Mr. Trump for waging an “undemocratic” and “un-American” campaign against the legitimacy of the election system, much as autocrats and dictators do, all to avoid admitting defeat.

“The former president of the United States of America has created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election,” Mr. Biden said, standing in the National Statuary Hall, which had been invaded by throngs of Trump supporters a year ago. “He’s done so because he values power over principle, because he sees his own interests as more important than his country’s interests and America’s interests, and because his bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy or our Constitution. He can’t accept he lost.”

The president’s address began a commemoration that, instead of showcasing American unity against threats to democracy, only underscored just how riven the country remains a year after rioters armed with hockey sticks, baseball bats, crutches, flagpoles, fire extinguishers, bear spray and stolen police batons broke into the Capitol to disrupt the counting of the Electoral College votes ratifying Mr. Trump’s defeat.

Democrats, warning of the undiminished dangers posed by Mr. Trump and his followers, marked the anniversary with a day of events, including speeches, personal testimony, a panel of historians, videos, moments of silence and a candlelight vigil, while Republicans by and large stayed away and refused to participate.

No Republican senators showed up on the floor for a session of remarks recalling that day. Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, one of Mr. Trump’s most vocal critics, was the only elected member of her party to join a moment of silence in the House chamber, bringing along her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney.

The disparate approaches to the anniversary made clear that Jan. 6 has become just another barometer of America’s partisan divide. Democrats view the storming of the Capitol as an existential attack on the Constitution unlike any in modern times. Most Republicans would rather focus on anything else, with some convinced that Democrats are exploiting it as a weapon against them while others fear crossing Mr. Trump, who continues to dominate the party.

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Feelings remained raw on Capitol Hill, a place of post-traumatic stress that has yet to fully recover from the psychological and political scars of an assault that led to at least seven deaths as well as injuries to 150 police officers. More than the usual acrimony over legislative differences, the legacy of Jan. 6 has exacerbated the toxic rift between members and staff aides on opposite sides of the aisle.

While the elaborate fencing around the Capitol has come down and the National Guard has gone home, many were on edge as the anniversary approached and security forces were on guard. Federal officials saw an uptick in online threats, including a video calling for a mass hanging of lawmakers, but cited no new, credible evidence of organized plots, according to a memo obtained by The New York Times.

Online chatter about celebrations and rallies by right-wing groups protesting what they call the persecution of the hundreds of rioters who have been arrested did not translate into large-scale events, and the day passed peacefully in Washington.

But emotions were high for Democrats who recalled the fear and dread of that day as lawmakers were rushed out of their chambers by overwhelmed police officers who could not contain rioters chanting “Hang Mike Pence” and hunting for Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California.

Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont paused to compose himself as he remembered the police officer who took his arm and vowed to protect him. Representative Colin Allred of Texas, a powerfully built former National Football League player, described shedding his coat, expecting to have to physically guard his colleagues.

To emphasize the significance of the event, Ms. Pelosi hosted a discussion led by Carla Hayden, the librarian of Congress, with the historians Doris Kearns Goodwin and Jon Meacham, who talked about other moments of peril, like the years leading up to the Civil War. The panel was introduced with a video specially produced by the cast of “Hamilton,” performing a song from the hit musical about the founding of the country.

“In my lifetime, this is the hardest moment for democracy,” said Ms. Goodwin. Mr. Meacham, who helped write Mr. Biden’s speech, called this moment “democracy’s hour of maximum danger” and said “it’s either a step on the way to the abyss or it is a call to arms, figuratively, for citizens to engage and say no, we are more important” than “the whim of a single man or a single party.”

The absence of Republicans indicated that 1/6 will never be remembered like 9/11, as a moment to come together. The surreal scene of Dick Cheney, himself a former member of the House, being welcomed cordially in the chamber by Ms. Pelosi and other Democrats who once deemed him a war criminal illustrated how much Mr. Trump has transformed the political dynamics of the country.

“It’s not a leadership that resembles any of the folks I knew when I was here for 10 years,” Mr. Cheney said, when asked about top Republicans and their response to the riot.

Earlier in the morning, his daughter, who serves as vice chairwoman of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot, castigated fellow Republicans for “looking the other way” rather than confronting the import of the Capitol attack.

“All of my colleagues, anyone who attempts to minimize what happened, anyone who denies the truth of what happened, they ought to be ashamed of themselves,” Ms. Cheney said on the “Today” show on NBC. “History is watching, and history will judge them.”

In the Senate chamber, Democrats assailed Mr. Trump, “the worst president in modern times,” as Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic majority leader, put it.

“It was Donald Trump’s big lie that soaked our political landscape in kerosene,” Mr. Schumer said. “It was Donald Trump’s rally on the Mall that struck the match. And then came the fire.”

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Biden: ‘I’ll Allow No One to Place a Dagger at the Throat of Democracy’

The president denounced former President Donald J. Trump for spreading lies about the 2020 election during a speech on the anniversary of the Capitol riot.

This wasn’t a group of tourists, this was an armed insurrection. They weren’t looking to uphold the will of the people, they were looking to deny the will of the people. They weren’t looking to uphold a free and fair election, they were looking to overturn one. They weren’t looking to save the cause of America, they were looking to subvert the Constitution. The former president of the United States of America has created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election. He’s done so because he values power over principle. Because he sees his own interest as more important than his country’s interest, than America’s interest. And because his bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy or our Constitution. He can’t accept he lost. The third big lie being told by our former president and his supporters is that the mob who sought to impose their will through violence are the nation’s true patriots. Is that what you thought when you looked at the mob ransacking the Capitol? Destroying property, literally defecating in the hallways. Rifling through the desks of senators and representatives. Hunting down members of Congress. Patriots? Not in my view. I did not seek this fight brought to this Capitol one year ago today. But I will not shrink from it either. I will stand in this breach. I will defend this nation, and I’ll allow no one to place a dagger at the throat of democracy. We will make sure the will of the people is heard. That the ballot prevails, not violence. That authority in this nation will always be peacefully transferred.

Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (2)

Mr. Biden’s decision to go after Mr. Trump so directly broke a year of mostly silence in which he avoided acknowledging his predecessor while he tried to fulfill his campaign promise of working across party lines.

But with bipartisanship elusive and Washington stalemated, Mr. Biden dispensed with the restraint and gave the sort of full-throated denunciation no sitting president other than the voluble Mr. Trump has issued against a predecessor in modern times.

Without using Mr. Trump’s name, the president goaded him by referring to him as the “defeated former president.” He assailed Mr. Trump for encouraging supporters and then “doing nothing for hours as police were assaulted, lives were at risk, and the nation’s capital under siege.”

Mr. Biden rejected efforts since then to rewrite history and cast the attackers as patriots. “Is that what you thought when you looked at the mob ransacking the Capitol, destroying property, literally defecating in the hallways, rifling through desks of senators and representatives, hunting down members of Congress?” Mr. Biden asked. “Patriots? Not in my view.”

“Those who stormed this Capitol and those who instigated and incited and those who called on them to do so,” he added, “held a dagger at the throat of America, at American democracy.”

He repeated the imagery in vowing to safeguard the system: “I will stand in this breach. I will defend this nation. And I will allow no one to place a dagger at the throat of our democracy.”

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Mr. Trump fired back in written statements from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. “This political theater is all just a distraction for the fact Biden has completely and totally failed,” he wrote. “The Democrats want to own this day of Jan. 6 so they can stoke fears and divide America,” he added. “I say, let them have it because America sees through theirs [sic] lies and polarizations.”

Mr. Biden offered his most extended rebuttal of the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen, noting that multiple recounts, court battles and inquiries had turned up no meaningful fraud. He pointed out that Republicans had not challenged Republican victories for Congress and governorships based on the same balloting they claim was illegitimate in the presidential race.

Mr. Biden also touched on voting rights legislation stalled in the Senate, although he has a separate speech on the subject scheduled for next week. Vice President Kamala D. Harris, who spoke before Mr. Biden, said, “We must pass voting rights bills that are now before the Senate.”

Republicans accused the White House and Democrats of politicizing the attack to promote legislation meant to benefit their own party, and rejected Mr. Biden’s indictment of Mr. Trump. “What brazen politicization of Jan. 6 by President Biden,” Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina wrote on Twitter.

Mr. Graham himself broke with Mr. Trump on that day a year ago, saying, “All I can say is count me out, enough is enough.” But it did not take long for him, like most Republicans, to fall in line behind the former president again.

In a series of tweets on Thursday, Mr. Graham decried the violence on Jan. 6 but not Mr. Trump. “President Biden and Vice President Harris’s speeches today,” he wrote, “were an effort to resurrect a failed presidency more than marking the anniversary of a dark day in American history.”

Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the House Republican whip, said Mr. Biden and Democrats have a “mass obsession” with Mr. Trump and were distracting from their own failures. “They just want to continue talking about Donald Trump and anything else other than the problems they created,” he said on Fox News.

Still, even as Republicans went after Mr. Biden and Democrats, no senior party leaders offered any real defense of Mr. Trump. The former president was left to be defended only by some of his most faithful fringe allies, like Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida, who is under federal investigation for sex trafficking, and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a onetime QAnon follower who asserted that a California wildfire was started by a space laser controlled by a Jewish banking family.

The two lawmakers offered conspiracy theories blaming the riot on Democrats and federal authorities at a news conference and on a podcast hosted by Stephen K. Bannon, a former adviser to Mr. Trump who himself is under indictment for contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with the House investigation.

“We’re ashamed of nothing,” Mr. Gaetz told Mr. Bannon. “We’re proud of the work we did on Jan. 6 to make legitimate arguments about election integrity.”

On the steps of the Capitol, Democrats ended the day with a solemn candlelight vigil, featuring prayer and patriotic song and tributes to the police officers who defended them and in some cases lost their lives. What the nation did not end the day with was a consensus, either about what happened then or what will happen now.

Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Emily Cochrane and Catie Edmondson contributed reporting.

Jan. 6, 2022, 6:34 p.m. ET

Jan. 6, 2022, 6:34 p.m. ET

Katie Rogers

4 takeaways from the anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

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Biden Calls Out Trump for Inciting Jan. 6 Capitol Attack

President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and lawmakers in Congress held a series of memorials to mark a year since a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building.

“Those who stormed this Capitol, and those who instigated and incited, and those who called on them to do so, held a dagger at the throat of America. The former president of the United States of America has created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election. He’s done so because he values power over principle. Because he sees his own interest as more important than his country’s interest, than America’s interest. On Jan. 6, we all saw what our nation would look like if the forces who seek to dismantle our democracy are successful. The lawlessness, the violence, the chaos. I want to acknowledge our fallen heroes of that day. U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, U.S. Capitol Police Officer Howard Liebengood, Metropolitan Officer Jeffrey Smith, U.S. Capitol Police Officer Billy Evans, of a later assault. Now I ask all members to rise for a moment of silence in their memory. When the violent assault was made on the Capitol, its purpose was to thwart Congress’s constitutional duty to validate the electoral count and to ensure the peaceful transfer of power. But the assault, did not deter us from our duty. So when I look back at that day, that is the lasting image, that in the end, democracy prevailed, that in two weeks later, there we were under that beautiful blue sky with leaders of both parties on that inaugural stage saying that, yes, our democracy stood tall. It brushed itself off, and we move forward as one nation under God with liberty and justice for all, as we always do. [singing] God bless America, my home, sweet home.

Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (4)

WASHINGTON — This anniversary of Jan. 6 marked a turning point for President Biden, who for much of his first year in office avoided direct confrontation with his predecessor, Donald J. Trump.

On Thursday, Mr. Biden took deliberate aim at Mr. Trump, assailing him for watching television as the attacks unfolded, spreading a lie that the 2020 election was rigged, and holding “a dagger at the throat of America” when he encouraged his supporters to attack the United States Capitol.

But Mr. Biden held on to one vestige from the past year: He still refused to call Mr. Trump by name.

Here are four takeaways from the day.

Biden takes a new, confrontational approach to Trump.

As president-elect in November 2020, Mr. Biden and his staff proceeded with the transition process by treating Mr. Trump’s attempts to reverse the election as little more than histrionics.

The calculation made back then by Mr. Biden and his advisers was that America was simply ready to move on, but on Thursday, the president was more willing than usual to address Mr. Trump’s claims, calling him a loser in the process.

“He’s not just a former president. He’s a defeated former president — defeated by a margin of over 7 million of your votes in a full and free and fair election,” Mr. Biden said. “There is simply zero proof the election results were inaccurate.”

His remarks set him down a more confrontational path with Mr. Trump, who holds a firm grip on his party and shows no sign of backing down from continuing to perpetrate a false narrative about the 2020 election. It is a development Mr. Biden spent his first year in office avoiding, but one that he seemed to embrace as a matter of necessity on Thursday.

Biden rejects working with Republicans who support ‘the rule of a single man.’

On his Inauguration Day just under a year ago, Mr. Biden promised to be “a president for all Americans. I will fight as hard for those who did not support me as for those who did.” On Thursday, he appeared not as the peacemaker president but as a leader who had a warning for Americans who attacked the Capitol in service of Mr. Trump.

“I did not seek this fight brought to this Capitol one year ago today, but I will not shrink from it either,” Mr. Biden said. “I will stand in this breach. I will defend this nation. And I will allow no one to place a dagger at the throat of our democracy.”

Mr. Biden also reserved some of his ire for elected officials. For a leader who came into office speaking poetically about the art of bipartisanship — “politics is the art of the possible,” he said early on — and about the need to heal a fractured nation, Mr. Biden suggested that he was only interested in working with Republicans who have not tied their political fortunes to the falsehoods spread by Mr. Trump.

“While some courageous men and women in the Republican Party are standing against it, trying to uphold the principles of that party, too many others are transforming that party into something else,” Mr. Biden said. “But whatever my other disagreements are with Republicans who support the rule of law and not the rule of a single man, I will always seek to work together with them to find shared solutions where possible.”

Trump — and Trumpism — is not going away.

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The president’s remarks presented a stark choice: “Are we going to be a nation that lives not by the light of the truth but in the shadow of lies?” In corners of the internet governed by Mr. Trump and his supporters, the answer seemed clear.

On a podcast hosted by Stephen K. Bannon, a former Trump aide who was indicted in November for failing to comply with congressional investigators, Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia deflected blame for the attack and suggested it was part of a government conspiracy.

In his own cascade of statements, Mr. Trump showed no sign that he was going to shrink from a fight. He assailed Mr. Biden for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, and even the way he delivered his Thursday remarks.

“He acts like he’s aggrieved,” Mr. Trump said in one of several statements, “but we’re the ones who were aggrieved, and America is suffering because of it.”

The Republican Party remains very much Mr. Trump’s, his lies about a stolen election a litmus test that he is seeking to impose on the 2022 primaries with the candidates he backs. He is the party’s most coveted endorser, its leading fund-raiser and the early front-runner in polling for the 2024 presidential nomination.

Mr. Trump has a rally scheduled in Arizona next week.

Republicans mostly tried to stay out of the spotlight.

Mr. Biden’s forceful condemnation of Mr. Trump was echoed by Democrats across the Capitol. Republicans were mostly absent.

Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, accompanied by her father, appeared to be the only elected Republican among dozens of lawmakers who gathered on the House floor on Thursday afternoon. Many Senate Republicans were out of town for the funeral of a former colleague.

Republicans were not totally silent. While calling last Jan. 6 “a dark day,” Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, said in a statement that it has “been stunning to see some Washington Democrats try to exploit this anniversary to advance partisan policy goals that long predated” the chaos at the capitol, a likely reference to a Democrat-led push for voting rights legislation.

Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who condemned the events of the day when they happened only to reverse course soon after, accused Democrats of politicizing the anniversary: “Their brazen attempts to use Jan. 6 to support radical election reform and changing the rules of the Senate to accomplish this goal will not succeed,” Mr. Graham said.

But there were some voices among unelected Republicans calling for something of a reckoning over the party’s support for Mr. Trump.

Karl Rove, the strategist who helped George W. Bush win the presidency twice, used his Wall Street Journal opinion column to rebuke “those Republicans who for a year have excused the actions of the rioters who stormed the Capitol, disrupted Congress as it received the Electoral College’s results and violently attempted to overturn the election.”

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A year later, the Jan. 6 attack has become just another wedge dividing the nation.

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For a day or two or maybe a week after the can-you-believe-this-is-happening-in-America events of a year ago, there were those who thought that the shock to the system might upend politics in a profound way.

That the country might speak as one against an attempt to overturn democracy. That the tribal divisions of the era might be overcome by a shared sense of revulsion. That a president who encouraged a mob that attacked Congress in a vain bid to hold onto power might be ostracized or at least fade into exile.

That was then. A year after the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol in which supporters of President Donald J. Trump trying to stop final recognition of a certified free and fair election burst through barricades, pummeled police officers and forced lawmakers to flee for their lives, what is most striking is not what has changed, but what has not.

America has not come together to defend its democracy; it has only split further apart. Lies and disinformation spread by the former president have so permeated the political ecosphere that nearly universal outrage has reverted to separate blue and red realities. Far from shunned for what even his own vice president deemed an unconstitutional attempt to thwart the will of the voters, Mr. Trump remains the undisputed powerhouse of his party — and a viable candidate to reclaim the White House in three years.

Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (6)

Jan. 6, 2022, 5:40 p.m. ET

Jan. 6, 2022, 5:40 p.m. ET

Emily Cochrane

You can hear faint singing along as both representatives and senators stand on the steps. It’s again a predominately Democratic crowd.

Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (7)

Jan. 6, 2022, 5:35 p.m. ET

Jan. 6, 2022, 5:35 p.m. ET

Emily Cochrane

Lawmakers are gathered on the steps of the Capitol for a vigil marking the anniversary. They’re holding candles, with even more candles lining the steps. It’s a striking sight, with police patrolling the plaza.

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5:04 p.m. EST, Jan. 6, 2021

At around 5 p.m. last year, officers used tear gas and flashbangs to clear the west side of the inauguration tunnel and the terrace below. Though officers had been clearing the Capitol for more than two hours, this final push dispersed the mob. About 30 minutes later the Capitol building was declared secure.

Jan. 6, 2022, 4:52 p.m. ET

Jan. 6, 2022, 4:52 p.m. ET

Richard Fausset

Republicans and Democrats come together in Atlanta to remember Senator Isakson on Jan. 6.

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ATLANTA — On a day when Washington’s partisan divide felt as deep as it has in decades, lawmakers from both parties gathered in an Atlanta church on Thursday to honor one of the U.S. Senate’s great champions of bipartisanship, Johnny Isakson.

Mr. Isakson, a moderate Georgia Republican who once called bipartisanship “a state of being,” was 76 when he died on Dec. 19, having retired prematurely from the Senate in 2019 because of health complications. He was battling Parkinson’s disease.

In Washington on Thursday, most Republican legislators refused to take part in the commemorations of the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol by supporters of former President Donald J. Trump. But they came together at Peachtree Road United Methodist Church, in Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood, to honor Mr. Isakson.

Among the attendees were Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, and Senator Raphael Warnock, the Democrat who was elected to Mr. Isakson’s old Georgia seat last January.

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, delivering words of remembrance, acknowledged that the funeral resonated in a spirit of comity that the Senate was once known for, but that has lately become more scarce.

“I haven’t seen this big of a bipartisan group of Senators together off the floor since September,” he said. That, he said, was the date of an annual, “Johnny Isakson barbecue lunch,” a social tradition that Mr. Isakson started and that lawmakers have continued in his absence.

Former U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss, an old friend of Mr. Isakson’s, also delivered remarks, noting that in his farewell speech to the Senate, Mr. Isakson said that he divided the world into two categories: friends and future friends.

Mr. Chambliss recalled that Mr. Isakson also quoted Mark Twain’s advice to do the right thing, on the grounds that “It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.”

Mr. Isakson held firm conservative beliefs, opposing the Affordable Care Act and gay marriage, but he also bucked the party’s status quo at times, and he was not afraid to publicly criticize Mr. Trump.

Along the way, he made numerous friends in both parties; Mr. Chambliss said that former Georgia Governor Roy Barnes, a Democrat, once quipped, “If all Republicans were like Johnny Isakson, I would be a Republican.”

The pews were packed with friends and admirers from both parties, including Mr. Barnes. The top statewide elected officials in attendance included Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, both of whom are facing tough primary challenges from pro-Trump challengers.

A folk duo underscored the tone with a rendition of “Let There be Peace on Earth.” When they sang “God Bless America,” the mourners stood up en masse.

4:49 p.m. EST, Jan. 6, 2021

A year ago, rioters on the east side of the Capitol surrounded and threatened members of the media. They destroyed equipment, and one man unsuccessfully attempted to light it on fire. Earlier, protesters had punched and shoved CNN journalists. Another protester, who claimed to be a veteran, threatened an independent reporter.

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Jan. 6, 2022, 4:40 p.m. ET

Jan. 6, 2022, 4:40 p.m. ET

Catie Edmondson

Elevating conspiracy theories, Greene and Gaetz led the only Republican event commemorating Jan. 6.

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Congressional Republicans almost uniformly avoided participating in events at the Capitol on Thursday commemorating the Jan. 6 attack; they were nowhere to be found on the House or Senate floor.

That left Representatives Matt Gaetz of Florida and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, two far-right lawmakers on the fringes of the Republican Party, as the headliners of their party’s only event on Capitol Hill on Thursday commemorating the anniversary of the riot.

Speaking from an office building near the Capitol, they elevated unproven conspiracy theories about the origin of the assault that sought to deflect blame from former President Donald J. Trump, such as one suggesting that federal agents stoked the violence against Congress.

There is no evidence that federal agents played any role in the assault, which occurred when supporters of Mr. Trump, who falsely claimed the election had been stolen from him, stormed the Capitol while Congress was counting the electoral votes to formalize President Biden’s election.

Still, Ms. Greene and Mr. Gaetz decried the treatment of the people charged with taking part in the riot, who are being held without bail at a jail in Southeastern Washington, D.C.

Both lawmakers are considered outliers in their party. Democrats booted Ms. Greene off her congressional committees for posting violent social media posts that predated her election to Congress, and Mr. Gaetz has been dogged by a federal child sex trafficking investigation.

But their unyielding allegiance to Mr. Trump — and their willingness to mirror his bombastic rhetoric — has won them a devoted following among hard-right conservatives across the country and online, a standing they will no doubt attempt to parlay into power should Republicans win the House later this year.

4:26 p.m. EST, Jan. 6, 2021

At this time last year, Rosanne Boyland, 34, was unconscious outside the west side inauguration tunnel. She fell and members of the crowd trampled her as they tried to breach police lines. The crowd attacked the police with sticks and crutches.

Jan. 6, 2022, 4:24 p.m. ET

Jan. 6, 2022, 4:24 p.m. ET

Michael M. Grynbaum

Right-wing media criticized Biden’s speech and played down the Jan. 6 anniversary.

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Breitbart News called it the “Democrat Day of Hysteria.” Representative Steve Scalise, Republican of Louisiana, went on Fox News to criticize President Biden for a “mass obsession with Donald Trump.” The right-wing pundit Ben Shapiro wrote on Twitter that “this January 6 extravaganza will earn a standing ovation from the media echo chamber, and achieve nothing else.”

Many conservative media outlets covered Thursday’s anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot by lobbing criticism at Mr. Biden for his morning speech, which accused his predecessor of holding a “dagger at the throat of America.” Pro-Trump commentators called that an unnecessary politicization of the day’s events that would divide Americans.

One chief narrative on conservative platforms was the notion that Democrats and mainstream journalists had overblown the attack on the Capitol and were overly fixated on Thursday’s commemoration of Jan. 6, which marked the first interruption of the peaceful transfer of power in American history.

“Unless you were there that day, you cannot possibly understand what it was like,” the Fox News host Tucker Carlson said on Wednesday evening, mocking what he deemed an overly emotional response by reporters. “Imagine the Tet offensive, plus Falluja, plus the night before Thanksgiving at Whole Foods.”

Fox News carried Mr. Biden’s speech live on Thursday morning, along with analysis from its political staff and a report from the congressional correspondent Chad Pergram, who covered the riot in person that day. Bret Baier, Fox’s chief political anchor, cautioned that the comments of Vice President Kamala Harris, which included references to major attacks on the United States, could stoke criticism from conservatives.

“The fact that the vice president conveyed that Jan. 6, 2021 was like Dec. 7, 1941, and Sept. 11, 2001 — even for some people who are going to condemn the attacks and the riot, they’re going to find that, I think, pretty hyperbolic,” Mr. Baier said. “And for 9/11 family survivors, maybe insulting. We may see that backlash.”

Mr. Baier is set to interview Representative Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming and a sharp Trump critic, at 6 p.m. on his flagship program.

Still, there were long stretches where Fox News entirely set aside the subject of the Capitol attack. The network’s 2 p.m. hour came and went without a mention of the anniversary or of Mr. Biden’s speech, a period when CNN and MSNBC carried wall-to-wall coverage of the anniversary, including live remarks from lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Instead, “America Reports,” Fox News’s afternoon newscast, ran segments on the closure of the Chicago public school system, a possible change of venue for the Super Bowl, and ties between the billionaire George Soros and prosecutors in Chicago, San Francisco and elsewhere.

In that particular hour, even Newsmax, which is known for a more sharply right-wing approach than Fox News, ran anniversary coverage. One segment included a correspondent’s on-air reminder that Mr. Trump’s claims of election fraud were “rejected unanimously by the courts and even his own attorney general.”

One America News Network, a far-right channel carried in some 35 million households, ran a segment about “the patriotic demonstrations at the Capitol on Jan. 6” that amplified a range of conspiracy theories, including the falsehoods that the attack was predominantly peaceful and a ploy by liberals to strip patriotic Americans of their liberties. “Leftist, Media Narrative Surrounding January 6th, 2021 Simply an Excuse for Democrats to Seize Power,” read an onscreen headline.

On Wednesday, Mr. Carlson, the top-rated Fox News host, used his show to continue his revisionist approach to the Jan. 6 riot and to mock liberals and journalists who were emphasizing the significance of its anniversary on Thursday.

“Pretending that a protest was actually a failed coup is the Democratic Party’s entire strategy to win this year’s midterm election,” Mr. Carlson told viewers. “At this point, it’s all they’ve got.”

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Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (11)

Jan. 6, 2022, 4:22 p.m. ET

Jan. 6, 2022, 4:22 p.m. ET

Nicholas Fandos

House Democrats spent two hours sharing their experiences from Jan. 6, many of them harrowing. Representative Jason Crow, Democrat of Colorado, closed out the session with a call to action for Americans to help breathe life into a new patriotism “rooted in humility” and public service.

Jan. 6, 2022, 4:00 p.m. ET

Jan. 6, 2022, 4:00 p.m. ET

Michael S. Schmidt

The lawyer who helped Pence stand up to Trump is still concerned for democracy.

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Two days before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, J. Michael Luttig, a retired former federal appeals court judge, found himself enmeshed in a brewing constitutional crisis.

A former law clerk of his, John C. Eastman, was telling President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence that the vice president essentially had the authority to insert himself into the election certification to help overturn the election results. At the same time, Mr. Luttig’s longtime friend, Mr. Pence’s personal lawyer, Richard Cullen, was asking Mr. Luttig to use his position as a leading conservative legal scholar to publicly proclaim there was no legal basis for Mr. Pence to help Mr. Trump — a move that would help give Mr. Pence political and legal cover to push back on Mr. Trump.

Mr. Luttig, whom George W. Bush considered to become chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, found Mr. Eastman’s arguments preposterous and publicly said that Mr. Pence had no choice. Ultimately, Mr. Pence cited Mr. Luttig in a letter he released on Jan. 6 explaining why he was not standing in Congress’s way as lawmakers certified the results. A day after the Capitol attack, Mr. Pence called Mr. Luttig to thank him.

A year later, Mr. Luttig said that he had never been more concerned about the direction of the country’s democracy. “I was gravely worried for our country last Jan. 6,” Mr. Luttig said in an email. “A year later, I am even more worried, fearful of the peril that lies ahead for America. We are at an historic inflection point as to who we are and who we are going to be as a nation. History is watching and anxiously awaiting our decision.”

Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (13)

Jan. 6, 2022, 3:47 p.m. ET

Jan. 6, 2022, 3:47 p.m. ET

Zolan Kanno-Youngs,Glenn Thrush and Eileen Sullivan

Violent online threats rose in the lead-up to the Jan. 6 anniversary, officials say.

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Federal officials have seen an uptick in online threats related to the anniversary of the Capitol attack — including a video calling for a mass hanging of lawmakers — but they cited no new, credible evidence of organized plots, according to a memo obtained by The New York Times.

In the past 48 hours, officials with the F.B.I. and Department of Homeland Security have flagged posts on “extremist related platforms” that might incite “lone offenders” to take violent action against members of Congress, state and local officials and high-profile members of political parties, according to the memo, written by John D. Cohen, intelligence chief of the Homeland Security Department, to update government partners on Thursday.

Mr. Cohen said any new attacks inspired by the posts could target officials and government installations inside or outside of Washington.

“The potential threat of violence could extend beyond” the capital region, he wrote, adding the reports were “being investigated, as appropriate.”

The Capitol was heavily guarded on Thursday as President Biden and Vice President Harris arrived to deliver speeches in Statuary Hall, though not nearly at the level of protection it had in the days after the riot, when National Guard troops camped out in the hallways and protective fencing was installed.

On Tuesday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Chief J. Thomas Manger of the Capitol Police acknowledged the heightened threats, but said their departments were better prepared to confront possible threats than they were a year ago.

While most online threats turn out to be bombastic noise, Mr. Cohen singled out a few examples of online threats that F.B.I. officials found particularly worrisome.

An unknown individual on a QAnon forum posted a video online listing 93 members of Congress who voted to certify the “fraudulent” 2020 presidential election, and called for them to be strung up in front of the White House, he wrote.

The video was originally put online last month, but it was reposted multiple times on Telegram and other platforms this week, garnering about 60,000 views.

Another online post encouraged Trump supporters to assassinate Democratic political figures, including President Biden, because of a false perception that he was elected fraudulently.

Homeland Security officials have shared the information with the Secret Service, the Capitol Police and the Washington Metropolitan Police. In light of that reporting, the Federal Protective Service has also expanded patrols in and around federal facilities across the country.

The warning comes after federal officials outlined a range of potential threats associated with the commemoration of the Jan. 6 attack. That assessment found no credible or concrete evidence of an organized attempt to launch a similar attack, but also warned about the possibility of lone-wolf attacks, whipped up by misinformation and incitement to violence.

The most likely offenders would be people “who adhere to ideologies associated with promoting the superiority of the white race, militia violent extremism, and conspiracy theories, including those related to QAnon,” the Homeland Security Department concluded in that separate memo dated Dec. 30.

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Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (14)

Jan. 6, 2022, 3:34 p.m. ET

Jan. 6, 2022, 3:34 p.m. ET

Nicholas Fandos

Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, closed out a day of tributes in the Senate by calling for the chamber to change its rules to embrace sweeping voting rights legislation over Republican objections. Senators are expected to revisit the subject next week in a debate timed to coincide with the anniversary of Jan. 6 and the observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (15)

Jan. 6, 2022, 3:30 p.m. ET

Jan. 6, 2022, 3:30 p.m. ET

The New York Times

The fight over American democracy and the fragility of good faith: A discussion with Times reporters.

Our political journalists talked about the G.O.P.’s push to restrict voting and seize control over elections, and how Democrats are responding.

Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (16)

Carl Hulse

The battle over democracy didn’t end on Jan. 6 last year. Voting rights are taking center stage in Washington, and Republican legislatures around the country are intent on imposing new voting restrictions and taking control of the election apparatus. What are you all seeing and reporting on?

Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (17)

Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (18)

Nick Corasaniti

In 2021, we saw one of the greatest contractions in voting access in generations, as 19 states passed 34 laws that added new restrictions to voting. And already this year we've seen key midterm battlegrounds like New Hampshire and Florida introduce bills to further restrict voting rights.

Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (19)

Reid Epstein

Elected Republicans have adopted elements, if not all, of Donald Trump's false assertions that the 2020 election was stolen, leading to a continuation of ​efforts to overturn the election and to create ways for future election results to be undone.

Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (20)

Lisa Lerer

I'm struck by how deeply the false narrative about Jan. 6 has taken hold among Republicans, many of whom now believe it was justified and see the attackers as "patriots." It is the upside-down, topsy-turvy world. That disinformation campaign only fuels the idea of a "stolen election" — and all those voting restrictions.

Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (21)

Nick Corasaniti

Lisa's exactly right — that is often the justification for these new voting laws. In the preamble of some of the bills is a desire to "restore confidence" in elections.

Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (22)

Carl Hulse

The Republican tone on the Jan. 6 assault has really changed from in the immediate aftermath, when many seemed shaken by it.

Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (23)

Lisa Lerer

It's been quite the concentrated revisionist history campaign.

Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (24)

Lisa Lerer

I looked back at Biden's inauguration speech recently — which, of course, happened just weeks after the attack. "Democracy is fragile," he said. "And at this hour, my friends, democracy has prevailed." I'm not sure that's how people view this moment a year later.

Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (25)

Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (26)

Nick Corasaniti

That fragility will be on full display this year. There are statewide candidates for governor and secretary of state whose entire platforms will be based on digging into false claims of election fraud. Former Senator David Perdue's primary challenge to Gov. Brian Kemp in Georgia is perhaps the best example.

Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (27)

Astead W. Herndon

I think we see a Washington that's completely disconnected from the rest of the country, from underestimating the rally initially to misjudging how the Republican base would take those images. Jan. 6 showed the political class there was an ongoing threat to democracy.

Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (28)

Lisa Lerer

Totally right, Astead. An attack like that doesn't just manifest out of nowhere. This sentiment was building in the G.O.P. grassroots for months. And, of course, it was stoked by Trump and conservative media.

Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (29)

Astead W. Herndon

I was in Georgia a year ago, writing a story about the Democratic victories in the Senate. I'll never forget going to the Trump rally earlier that week: the WiFi password set up by the Trump campaign was "SeeYouJan6th" (it also didn't work).

Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (30)

Nick Corasaniti

I would note that calling American elections "rigged" has been core to the Trump platform since 2016. At a Colorado rally I went to that year, he falsely claimed that absentee ballots were tossed out.

Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (31)

Astead W. Herndon

That’s right — the idea that Trump wouldn't concede or would question the results was also a huge worry in 2016. This has been building.

Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (32)

Lisa Lerer

Remember that third debate in 2016, when Trump said he might not accept the results of the election and it seemed so shocking? He was telling us then.

Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (33)

Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (34)

Nick Corasaniti

Trump's refusal to concede and his effort to subvert the election revealed a key point of the fragility you mentioned earlier, Lisa. A lot of the American democratic system is rooted in good faith: certifying elections, counting the Electoral College, etc. Trump exposed the fragility of that faith.

Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (35)

Carl Hulse

As they try to advance their own voting rights bills, Senate Democrats are now trying to tie the need for action directly to Jan. 6.

Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (36)

Lisa Lerer

Right, but action on voting rights bills feels pretty unlikely unless they upend the filibuster, right? And I'm not sure that's going to happen … But never say never, I suppose! Am I being overly skeptical?

Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (37)

Carl Hulse

It is definitely going to be uphill. The fight to change the Senate rules to overcome a filibuster will take the support of Senators Joe Manchin III and Kyrsten Sinema, and so far they have been reluctant.

Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (38)

Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (39)

Astead W. Herndon

Let's say Democrats pass these voting rights bills. They don't reverse the American public's loss of trust. They don't deal with election subversion. They can't change a bad faith media ecosystem that has a financial incentive to push conspiracy. And they probably don't change what Trump is going to say.

Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (40)

Nick Corasaniti

Not to mention, Astead, that the voting rights bills are also likely to face a legal challenge from the right, if passed.

Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (41)

Reid Epstein

The voting rights bills also won't reverse a lot of the gerrymandering that Democrats had hoped to halt with the federal redistricting reform.

Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (42)

Astead W. Herndon

The bills feel like an Obama-era solution to a Trump-era problem.

Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (43)

Charles Homans

One of the core aspects of the political dynamic now is that election issues are much more of a motivating factor for the Republican electorate than they are for Democrats.

Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (44)

Lisa Lerer

I think that's exactly right, Charlie. Republicans see themselves as patriots fighting the "tyranny" of a "stolen election." Democrats are concerned about voting, but they're more worried about the pandemic, the economy, inflation, crime — day-to-day life things.

Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (45)

Reid Epstein

Last week in Wisconsin, a state assemblyman introduced a bill that would allow the Legislature to nullify an election under a host of circumstances, including if the number of absentee ballots exceeds the margin of victory — which was the case there in 2020.

Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (46)

Carl Hulse

Lots of information to process here, and there will be a lot more to come on voting rights this year. Thanks, all, for the insights on one of the most critical issues of the moment.

Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (47)

Jan. 6, 2022, 3:26 p.m. ET

Jan. 6, 2022, 3:26 p.m. ET

Emily Cochrane

The Cheneys, once despised by the left, are welcomed warmly by Democrats at a Jan. 6 observance.

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There were just two Republicans present in the House chamber for a moment of silence commemorating the Jan. 6 riot in the Capitol: Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, and her father, Dick Cheney, the former vice president.

Ms. Cheney, who has taken a leading role in the special committee investigating the attack, has been ostracized by her party as she continues to condemn former President Donald J. Trump, his lies about the 2020 election, and the Republican Party’s role in helping to spread them, as well as its efforts to play down or deny the severity of the riot.

So while Republican leaders stayed away from the remembrances at the Capitol on Thursday, Ms. Cheney — who was ousted from her leadership post for speaking out against Mr. Trump — was the only elected Republican present in the House chamber on Thursday. Most Senate Republicans issued statements and instead traveled to Atlanta to attend a memorial service for a former colleague. House Republicans remained largely silent.

“The future of the country is at stake, and there are moments when we all have to come together in order to defend the Constitution,” Ms. Cheney told reporters as she left the chamber.

Her father joined her on the House floor, as top Democrats — many of whom regarded him as a detested foe when he served under President George W. Bush — lined up to shake his hand and greet him warmly.

“It’s not a leadership that resembles any of the folks I knew when I was here for 10 years,” Mr. Cheney said, when asked about top Republicans and their response to the riot.

Asked about how they have treated his daughter, he replied, “My daughter can take care of herself.”

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3:19 p.m. EST, Jan. 6, 2021

A year ago, rioters attempted to breach the police line on the west side of the inauguration tunnel. They dragged Michael Fanone, a Metropolitan police officer, and a colleague into the crowd. They beat Mr. Fanone, who begged them to release him. Rioters dragged at least four officers into the crowd in total.

Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (49)

Jan. 6, 2022, 3:04 p.m. ET

Jan. 6, 2022, 3:04 p.m. ET

Nicholas Fandos

Jan. 6 was the fourth day in office for dozens of House members. Representative Sara Jacobs, Democrat of California, was one of them, she said. She recounted meeting new colleagues for the first time while hiding in the House gallery where she was prepared to wield a pair of high heels as a weapon if necessary.

Jan. 6, 2022, 2:52 p.m. ET

Jan. 6, 2022, 2:52 p.m. ET

Luke Broadwater

‘We’re going to count those votes.’ Schumer recounts a harrowing evacuation and a resolute return.

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Schumer Recounts Harrowing Escape From Capitol Rioters

Senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, led a group of lawmakers in recounting last year’s Capitol riot by a mob trying to keep Donald J. Trump in office.

Within 45 minutes of sitting there and watching the beginning of counting the ballots, a police officer in a big flak jacket and a large rifle grabbed me firmly by the collar like this. I’ll never forget that grip. And said to me, “Senator, we got to get out of here. You’re in danger.” I was within 30 feet of these nasty, racist, bigoted insurrectionists. Had someone had a gun, had two of them blocked off the door, who knows what would have happened? I was told later that one of them reportedly said, “There’s the big Jew, let’s get him.” I remember when the leaders, Senator McConnell, myself, Speaker Pelosi, Leader McCarthy, were sent off to the secret place. We convened after desperately trying to get the president on the phone to ask him to call the rioters off. We spoke to the Secretary of Defense and the acting attorney general, but to no avail. But then the four of us got together and said, “We’re going to come back. We’re going to count those votes. We’re not going to let the violent insurrectionists stop us.” And count the votes, we did.

Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (51)

Senators spent much of the day on Thursday recounting their experiences on Jan. 6, a series of speeches on the Senate floor that conjured up memories of the violent storming of the Capitol that sent lawmakers fleeing for their lives.

Before asking for a moment of silence to honor those who protected the Capitol, Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, spoke about his own close encounter with the mob. He recalled how an officer grabbed him by the collar to lead him to safety, only moments before rioters reached the Senate floor.

“I’ll never forget that grip. And he said to me, ‘Senator, we got to get out of here, you’re in danger,’” Mr. Schumer recalled.

As they rushed through the halls, Mr. Schumer had to quickly change course.

“I was within 30 feet of these nasty, racist, bigoted insurrectionists,” he said. “Had someone had a gun, had two of them blocked off the door, who knows what would have happened. I was told later that one of them reportedly said, ‘There’s the big Jew. Let’s get him.’”

No Republicans attended the session, which was devoted to remembrances of the riot a year ago.

Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota and chairwoman of the Rules Committee, recalled the quick thinking of congressional aides who whisked the chests carrying electoral votes out of the chamber before the mob could seize them.

“As I stand here, I look at the faces of the staff, I remember the moment when we were pushed out of this chamber for security reasons,” Ms. Klobuchar said. “I remember the words of one staff member who yelled out, ‘Take the boxes. Take the boxes.’ She was talking about the mahogany boxes that were filled with the electoral ballots, because we knew they would be destroyed if they were left behind.”

Later, that decision would allow Republican and Democratic leaders, working together, to return to the Capitol and complete the counting of electoral votes, preserving the peaceful transfer of power.

“I remember when the leaders — Senator McConnell, myself, Speaker Pelosi, Leader McCarthy — were sent off to the secret place,” Senator Schumer said, referring to a secure location where congressional leaders are taken in emergencies. “We convened, after desperately trying to get the president on the phone to ask him to call the rioters off.”

“We spoke to the secretary of defense and the acting attorney general, but to no avail,” Mr. Schumer continued. “But then the four of us got together and said, ‘We’re going to come back. We’re going to count those votes. We’re not going to let the violent insurrectionists stop us.’ And count the votes we did.”

Capitol Attack Anniversary: At the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Day of Remembrance and Division (Published 2022) (2024)

FAQs

What happened on January 6th in the Capitol? ›

The FBI estimates that between 2,000 and 2,500 people entered the Capitol Building on January 6, with some vandalizing and looting, including the offices of then-House speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Congress members.

Has there ever been a riot at the Capitol before? ›

The United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., became the meeting place of the United States Congress when the building was initially completed in 1800. Since that time, there have been many violent and dangerous incidents, including shootings, fistfights, bombings, poisonings and a major riot.

When was the White House attack? ›

The following article is a broad timeline of the course of events surrounding the attack on the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, by rioters supporting United States President Donald Trump's attempts to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election.

What is January 6th in Christianity? ›

Epiphany - also known as Three Kings' Day - is a Christian feast day which falls on 6 January. It is a special date for many Christians as it's when people celebrate how a star led the Magi - also known as the Three kings or the Wise Men - to visit the baby Jesus after he had been born.

What's happening on January 6th, 2024? ›

January 6th, 2024, the third anniversary of the Capitol insurrection, is also going to be to mark the beginning of 2024 -- a big year that will again test many of our democratic institutions.

How many times has the White House burn down? ›

The White House has a unique and fascinating history. It survived a fire at the hands of the British in 1814 (during the war of 1812) and another fire in the West Wing in 1929, while Herbert Hoover was President.

Does the White House have bulletproof glass? ›

Bulletproof glass in the three south windows of the Oval Office and a "bomb-barrier," concrete poured along the West Wall of the Executive Office Building, were installed. Special outdoor lighting was designed by General Electric to dimly illuminate the grounds without casting a glare on the house itself.

Has anyone snuck into the White House? ›

Despite security measures (such as a fence), there have been some people who have still managed to gain unauthorized access to the White House. President Barack Obama greeting the Salahis in the Blue Room of the White House in November 2009.

What is January 6th Christmas? ›

Many Christians around the world annually celebrate Epiphany on January 6. It is a public holiday in many countries and marks two events in Jesus Christ's life, according to the Christian Bible. The first event was when the three wise men, or kings, visited infant Jesus.

When did Trump become president? ›

On November 8, 2016, Mr. Trump was elected President in the largest Electoral College landslide for a Republican in 28 years.

When was the Capitol building built? ›

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